With the advent of mobile personal communication devices capable of receiving messages having different formats, it has been found desirable to include a visual interface to summarize the messages the user has received in each format. Typical wireless mobile communication devices are capable of receiving both voice and text messages in a variety of formats including phone calls, forwarded voice messages, email, SMS (Short Messaging Service) and other text message formats.
Messages received by the device are notionally collected in a message inbox until the user operates the device to delete or move the message to a storage location. When a user wishes to determine whether there are any new messages of interest listed in the message inbox for review, the user must visually check the mobile communication device's visual display. While a visual interface has proven to be a useful way to summarize the received messages to the user, such an interface requires the user to direct his or her attention to the interface to determine the contents of the inbox. This can be distracting to the user, or to others, in situations where the user's visual focus is required elsewhere such as driving, walking on a busy street or attending a meeting.
Since mobile communication devices are often worn in a holster or carrying case, viewing the visual interface typically requires removing the device from the holster or case to view the inbox summary display. Thus, while visual review of the contents of the inbox is efficient, the act of removing the device in order to view the display is potentially awkward or inefficient. Further, for devices with wireless headsets, the device is often carried in an inside pocket, a hand bag or briefcase.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method for allowing a user to review the contents of a message inbox on a mobile communication device without having to access the device to view the display.